Second Life Book Fair (no, really)

OK, if we’ve all finished with the hoopla of this year’s London Book Fair and all the agonising over the digital future of the book (so five years ago), here’s something to make Margaret Atwood choke on her bathwater:

Second Life Book Fair
20-22 April 2007

It’s the inaugural one. Organised by Poinky Malaprop, with involvement from Selina Greene, Neo Rebus, and Jilly Kidd, who are real book people, publishers, authors, editors, and booksellers.

The SL Book Fair brings together publishers, booksellers, authors, book developers, and readers to present and share their ideas around the use of books in Second Life. We are inviting members of the community to submit proposals for participation in the book fair in the following categories:

Presentations. Share thoughts, new ideas, or experiences related to books in SL.

Discussions. Lead a group or panel discussion exploring a particular issue such as copyright and DRM, usability, business models, or ways to translate books into virtual worlds.

Exhibits. Showcase your latest books, book technology, or service.

Events. Organize readings, parties, competitions, or other events to run concurrently with the book fair to promote your location or business.

…

I sadly can’t make it this weekend, but will make every effort to attend next year. Will you join me? Last one in’s a luddite.

3 Comments

We have just published the Tourist’s Guide to Second Life, and the authors, Paul Carr and Graham Pond (aka Montag Alacrity and Sweet Sweet Mincemeat in SL) will be signing copies of the book at this virtual fair. We will also be giving out promotional pith helmets (don’t ask…). So there’s another example of how us publishing ‘dino’s’ are being at least a teensy weensy bit more creative on the digital front than the lovely Danuta would have us all believe! (Wish I’d had time to squeeze this example in on Wednesday on BBC2 but trying to fit the entire ‘future of the book’ discussion into 4.5 minutes was a little tricky). I’m loving the way that Erica Wagner’s unbelievably trite assertion at ‘Digitise or Die’ at the South Bank on Tuesday night, that a good book is one that can be dropped in the bath, has already moved into cool publishing people’s shorthand for ‘fusty ostrich-type’ view of digital future’, don’t you? And I am saddened that one of my fave authors of all time, Margaret Attwood, doesn’t have just a little bit more imagination when it comes to thinking about the same subject. Hey-ho.

What a lovely funny article about the book fair. I helped organise it as a newbie and found out quickly about SL and the book technologies. I’ve met so many writers in this way too.

I’ve moved on to the next thing now – everything happens fast on SL. I’m editing a new magazine called SLiterary General for high quality fiction and poetry, plus listings of writing venues and a page on Books Out Now by SL Authors. I’ll expect a notecard from Paul and Graham about their book so I can include it.

At the magazine headquarters we’ll also be having author appearances on the rooftop stage and my colleage, the extremely talented Ina Centaur, will be able to make the avatars look just like the authors. One of Margaret Atwood in her bath perhaps….

We also have a little film studio and SL lets us show films in .mov format plus we can listen to podcasts to bring authors’ voices to an event. A pre recorded reading can be done in this way followed by live streaming for questions and answers and a discussion.

It’s all very exciting and also great fun. In SLiterary General I’ll be including poetry from French and Italian poets as I can provide a translation alongside and will try to include other languages in future as SL is a multilingual community. The amazing thing about SL is that a magazine like this reaches a circulation of thousands quite quickly and can attract sponsorship and advertising with a little time.

As for baths – I love them. I get all my best writing ideas in there. If any of you want to visit me in SL just look for Jilly Kidd and find SLiterary on my profile – it will drop you in my office for a chat. In RL I’m a published poet working on a novel and I edit fiction for Bluechrome Publishing in the UK – my name is Adele Ward.